Menu

Tag Archives: film

Please keep up with all of my old Graphic Novel Reviews here as I quest for 365 in 365 days! Or search #GN365 on Twitter.

Hey, all! No special theme this week, just some cool books (shows) that I’ve been waiting to tell you about!

Title: The End of the F***ing World

Author: Charlie Covell

Publisher: Netflix (Current 2017)

Age Rating: 17+

If you teach seniors, and especially if you teach a film or television class, you’ve had teens talking about this British show that recently hit Netflix. I know I have…

Over the past week, I had at least five students ask me if I had started The End of the F***ing World. I had not, but as the week went on, and kids kept asking me, I decided to check it out. After all, it’s only eight episodes, and most of them are under 23 minutes. My wife and I sat down to take it in, and we watched five episodes straight. I know it’s not a lot of time, but for two busy people with other things to do, it says a lot. We finished the season the next night.

The premise is simple: senior in high school boy thinks he could be a psycho-killer, and a high school senior girl that can’t stand the current state of social norms, steal a car and run from the world. Boy plans to kill girl to get his fix, but ends up falling for her; they do a few seriously illegal things along the way. End of the season is powerful.

The acting in the series is superb, and the writing is brilliant. This show is adapted from a 2017 graphic novel that I have not yet read, actually, I’ve never even seen it! But dang if I didn’t visit Amazon the second that I finished the show.

There are a few reasons that my students asked me if I had watched the show, besides the fact that I teach them about film and images: the show is good, really good. And as I mentioned in an earlier blog, these days, students are very well-versed in story. They binge shows all the time, and once one makes it on their radar, they all watch it like wildfire! The End of the F***ing World made the cut. Yes, it’s rated “R,” and yes, I’m aware that many students watching this should not be watching it. Luckily, I teach only seniors, but there is no doubt that this series contains a fierce example of quality storytelling with a thought-provoking ending that many of my students were dying to talk about. Now I can.

The series is dope. You should check it out. It’s very dark, but it’s very well written. And while it’s cool to find new shows that you might like, I think it’s just as important to learn about the media that your kids are watching and try to check some of it out! Make those connections; teach them that it is OK to talk intellectually about the art they love!